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Philanthropy: Supporting Better Brain Health

There is often a feeling of helplessness, or hopelessness, that comes with brain disorder diagnoses. At Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, we think differently. And we're taking a decidedly different approach:

We care for patients and family members.

Our goals with patient care extend far beyond the basic treatment protocols. We offer patients and their family members a comprehensive array of services and develop a treatment and support plan that works for everyone involved.

Frank Gehry and Larry Ruvo

We're proactive.

We've developed the Brain Health Initiative, a collection of innovative, interactive programs designed to help people protect and maintain brain health and reduce their risk of cognitive decline.

We take a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to research.

Our physician teams are studying what Alzheimer's, Huntington's, Parkinson's, frontotemporal dementia and multiple sclerosis have in common. Finding new insights into any one of these diseases may have a significant impact on the others.

We need your help to continue our work.

Research and care is expensive. But the truth is, every donor, and every dollar makes a difference. You can donate in honor of someone, in memory of a friend or loved one, or become a part of our planned giving program.

Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health was founded by Larry Ruvo, a philanthropist whose dream of eradicating Alzheimer's disease has been eagerly embraced by generous individuals, corporations and foundations.

Now more than ever, philanthropy drives neuroscience and the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health's ability to achieve its mission of providing state-of-the-art care for patients and supportive services to their families, while investigating the next generation of drug therapies for brain disease. In Las Vegas, an integrated fundraising entity, Keep Memory Alive, raises funds exclusively to support the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.

By supporting the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, you make an investment with long-lasting benefits for you, your family, and other loved ones. To make a gift today to support research and world class care, please visit us at giving.ccf.org/louruvo. Your gift will help us develop new ways to predict, diagnose, treat and---one day---cure cognitive disorders.

Keep Memory Alive Chairman and Founder Larry Ruvo and his wife and Keep Memory Alive Board Vice Chair, Camille Ruvo, along with the McGill family, resurrected the Glenbrook, Nevada rodeo in 2000 after it had been discontinued in 1965. Now, each summer this iconic rodeo features barrel racing as well as bull and bronco riding. Carnival games, a face painter and a watermelon eating contest delighted kids, while a Western-style barbeque and a silent auction captivated the young-at-heart.

Saturday afternoon, some guests enjoy a picnic at the home of Financier and Philanthropist Michael Milken and his wife Lori Milken. Saturday evening, the Ruvos open their beloved Shakespeare Ranch to world-renowned restaurateur Emeril Lagasse, who saddles up in the kitchen to prepare an extraordinary dinner. Guests enjoy the best of his signature cuisine accompanied by a selection of fine wine and spirits.

100% of the funds raised throughout this memorable weekend support the work of Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.

Bruce Lamb, PhD, leads one of three teams of Cleveland Clinic Scientist working to uncover the basic mechanisms behind Alzheimer's Disease. But his other job -- that of tireless advocate for Alzheimer's research -- is equally important.

"I became involved in advocacy for Alzheimer's disease because of the importance of research in developing treatments that can stop the disease," he says".

In 2010, with the support of the Alzheimer's Association, Dr. Lamb organized 55 researchers and others impacted by the disease to make a 4,500-mile bike ride across the country, during which they collected 110,000 signatures supporting the Breakthrough Act. This legislation would allocate $2 billion a year to further Alzheimer's research and develop an infrastructure to deal with the impending epidemic of the disease. Although Congress has yet to act on the bill, the National Alzheimer's Association recognized Dr. Lamb's seminal role by bestowing on him their National Civic Award.

But one important project Dr. Lamb pushed for was signed into law on January 4, 2011. The National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA) funds an office within the Department of Health and Human Services that will coordinate all national efforts in Alzheimer's research and clinical care, as well as institutional, home-and-community based programs. A major victory for the Alzheimer's community, it is the first legislation ever pursued in support of this disease.

Conrad N.Hilton Foundation

Thanks to a grant of almost $1.4 million from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, “now for the first time, we’re able to offer a comprehensive care program for the estimated 2,500 people in Southern Nevada with multiple sclerosis,” says Tim West, MD, Director, Cleveland Clinic Mellen Program for Multiple Sclerosis at the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas.

The multiple sclerosis (MS) clinic at the Las Vegas-based Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health is modeled after the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research at Cleveland Clinic’s main campus in Cleveland. We offer a four-pronged approach comprising education, social work, research and a dedicated medical team.

Hilton Foundation Chairman, President & CEO Steven M. Hilton understands the toll the MS can take on families. His mother, Marilyn Hilton, passed away from complications associated with the disease. “When someone you love is afflicted with MS, it opens your heart to the suffering that others go through. We feel it’s important to help people who are experiencing a similar struggle. The Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health is helping patients and their families cope with this disease and are poised to make an important contribution to the fight against MS."

Interested in supporting a program?

Whether you’re a grateful patient or family member or someone who is interested in expanding health care, there is always a way to help. Please contact Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health at 702.331.7052 or fritzl@ccf.org to discuss ways to give, from contributions today, to estate planning, to an endowed chair for the Director of the MS program

E. L. Wiegand Foundation Funds New Physical Therapy Center

"We do not fund need: We support excellence," says Kristen Avansino, President and Executive Director of the Reno, Nevada-based E. L. Wiegand Foundation.

"Collaboration is so important, as is knowing that outcomes are not shelved in an obscure drawer in Las Vegas, but shared. In Cleveland Clinic, the E. L. Wiegand Foundation has found a perfect partner, because we, too, are obsessed with outcomes."

Role Model Behavior

Steeped in tradition, yet futuristic in thought and deed, since 1981 the E. L. Wiegand Foundation has been providing grants to support education, medical research, civic and community affairs, art and cultural affairs and public affairs.

The Foundation enjoys playing the role of the catalyst. As Mrs. Avansino explains, "We hope that this grant will have a very long afterlife, so that in our small, humble manner, we can create with you a template that will ignite philanthropy in others and build an army to model these best practices."

Larry Ruvo is an indomitable force in Las Vegas philanthropy. Larry Ruvo is the Founder of Keep Memory Alive, Board Member and Fundraising Chairman for Alzheimer’s Research and the Las Vegas Alzheimer’s Association, the Nevada Tourism Alliance and the Counsel for a Better Nevada.

Mr. Ruvo’s wife, Camille, remembers when her husband decided to engage celebrity architect Frank Gehry to build a center for the study and treatment of the brain in Las Vegas, a city located miles and a desert away from the country’s renowned medical hubs, he met with skeptics at every turn.

“First they said Frank Gehry would never build in Las Vegas. Then they said the medical powerhouses wouldn’t take Vegas seriously. They told him he could never recruit world class doctors,” Mrs. Ruvo remembers.

But they were wrong.

Frank Gehry conceived a world-class building and was present at its groundbreaking in 2007. Cleveland Clinic signed up to operate the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in 2009, and the following year, world-renowned Alzheimer’s specialist Jeffrey Cummings, MD, ScD, was hired as director. Mr. Ruvo had delivered and the cynics were silenced.

Larry is the recipient of many awards, to name a few, the Altruistic Award by the Meadows School, UNLV President’s Medal, the Governor’s Philanthropist of the Year Award, Man of the Year awards from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, the Food & Beverage Directors Associations, the MDA and the 1999 Community Leadership Award from the Points of Light Foundation. On several occasions, he was honored by the United States Congress and was named as one of the Influential Businessmen of Southern Nevada in 2004 and 2009; included as one of the Vegas Dozen in 2005; and named Distinguished Nevadan by UNLV in 2009.

Jeffrey L. Cummings, MD, ScD

Thank you for your continued interest and support of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and Keep Memory Alive (KMA). You have proven to be generous, open-hearted, spirited individuals who continue to contribute to the success of our center and our search for treatments of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and multiple sclerosis.

Today more than ever, philanthropic support is critical to the success of our center as other sources of support decline while our economy struggles to recover. Generous donors fill the gap left by funding vacancies and provide flexibility in our research and care programs.